Jorōgumo
by GrenGren Alley
Summary: A shrine, a storm, and a spider... The Medicine Seller did not expect to find anything while seeking shelter from a storm, but Mononoke were never very considerate to begin with.
1. Chapter 1

_-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-_

_In the rays of dawn, more than the day comes to light._

_In the dark of night, mens' hearts become shadowed.  
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-_

Okuni always clearly recalled the day that she was hired to care for the shrine.

It was shortly after her parents died, and she had been wandering about for a while, doing odd jobs here and there to keep herself alive. She had happened upon a larger town, where a government official was trying to recruit shrine keepers for a place a day's walk away from town. It was dirty work, he'd said; the shrine was in disrepair and overrun with vermin and spiders. She supposed it was that last part that deterred people from taking the job, even for a group of men who were experienced shrine keepers. But Okuni had grown up on a farm; she was accustomed to sharing her space with spiders and other creatures, and making piles of dirt into her playhouses. So, she asked about the job, and was scheduled to travel there the next day. It was strange though; until she had expressed her interest in the work, the other, more experienced shrine keepers had stayed away from the official. The second Okuni accepted the job, they too wanted to go.

In hindsight, that should have been her first hint that something would go wrong.

It was pouring rain when the five of them arrived. That meant that they would have to put off their work until the storm let up. There was much to do, and they would receive payment twice a month for their services. Okuni learned the names of the other keepers; they were brothers, all disciples of some priest who lived in the mountains, and named for the four winds. All of them wore the same garb, but there were still ways to tell them apart.

Kita was a portly, short man with a red face who always smelled like onions. Mitami, on the other hand, was tall and handsome with defined features and a smooth voice. Then there were Nishi, who always had his brow furrowed, as if he was angry, and Higashi, who spent ages preening himself in the mornings.

And she was simply Okuni, a runaway from a village by a forest, cast out with no parents after a plague had ravaged the village, and whose home had been repurchased by the government for a minimal price after their deaths.

That money had been spent long ago, unfortunately. There was only so far one could survive, even living as frugally as she had been; or at least had been trying to be. And so the four disciples became her "companions," and she did not think that life at the shrine would be too difficult.

That was, until three days later, when the storm finally let up. she would soon learn that her companions were not nearly so harmless as they seemed.  
"Be good, little Okuni, and take care of the shrine while we're gone," they had said to her.  
"Where are you going? Why leave me to tend to the shrine by myself?"  
"To town," they'd said. "We'll be back in a few days, just start cleaning or something. You can handle that much, can you not?"  
Reluctant but subservient, she turned from them with a sigh. She had signed on for the job, and herself had no reason to travel to town, so she did just that.

There were piles of garbage and rubble in and around the shrine from wayfarers who would use the place as shelter. Though, "using it as a shelter" may have been putting it nicely. It looked more like they'd used the long-abandoned walls as they would a teahouse; empty sake bottles and papers and torn, discarded cloth lay about everywhere. She was able to find a use for them, however. Finding utility in ruin was one of the finer points of surviving alone. She burned the papers and cloth, with the exception of bits that she could salvage. The bottles could be used for storage of lantern oil and water.

It was after she finished her tasks that first day that she was finally able to take in the area around the shrine. It was a small lake, fed by a tiny waterfall that gushed from between two rocks high above the area. She worried that the lake would flood if there were more storms like the one the day before, but the shrine was built high off the ground, so such worries were unnecessary.

The disciples did not return for several days, and during that time the only company Okuni could find were the spiders that made their home in the rafters of the Haiden. She wondered briefly if she should put them outside and remove their webs, but they were not bothering anyone, and in fact, they took care of many of the more harmful insects that wandered about. Besides, she found the pattern of their webbing to be fascinating, something delicate yet strong that humans could never hope to construct. When the sun shone through a crack in the wood, the silk webs sometimes looked as if they were spun of gold.

There was one in particular, one large spider with a fat body and legs long enough to match the span of a hand, which lived right above the entrance to the Haiden. Okuni was initially paranoid that she would drop onto her head as she entered, but never had any problems with any of the shrine's residents.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

Three days later, the disciples returned.  
It was with horror that she met them. She had thought that they were in town in order to speak to people and offer prayers. She did not expect that what they were doing was spitting directly in the face of their so-called beliefs. The four disciples brought a woman to the shrine, taking her into the depths of the Honden, along with a large quantity of liquor.  
Okuni had warned them against it; she was certainly no priestess, but she did come from a village rife with superstition, and everyone knew that no one could enter the Honden unless it was for a very specific ritual. Yet, the four were defiling that place and (as she would later learn) gambling away the money the official sent to the shrine as payment.

Okuni burned inside.  
Though she knew what they were doing and had lectured them about it, even threatening to tell the officials about it, they did not stop. Every few days, they would go to town, their absence giving her peace of mind (though a great deal more work on her own...not that they ever did any work anyway), and return with a woman. She never saw the women after they went into the Honden, but assumed that they left in the morning once their 'work' was complete. The men ignored all threats and warnings.  
It got so bad that Okuni eventually started locking the doors to the shrines, trying to keep them away from the place. They became angry with her, tried to break down the doors of the shrine, telling her that they had every right to be there.

She knew it was part of her duty to report it to the officials, though without proof of what they were doing, who would believe any of it? Gradually, their visits to town grew longer and longer. Sometimes, they were away for as long as a month at a time, and other times they would be gone for only a day, returning and beating on the shrine doors once again.

It was on one of their visits to town, when a vicious storm was beating on the outside of the Haiden where she had taken to staying, that it all began.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

"Ahhh! No, not again!"

Cold rain caused a young woman to freeze in her tracks as rain started to pour from nowhere. She'd been on her way to collect the plaques from the Ema so that they wouldn't get damaged in the storm. It had been raining on and off for days, and today was no different, but the sudden torrential downpour had prevented her from finishing up her task. She turned on her heel, already soaked through from the rain, and retreated into the Haiden (she had yet to clear out the small cabin near the shrine which had been intended for sleep, and was honestly a bit afraid of what disaster she might find in there). Soon huddled up with a blanket to dry, she sat in the center of the room wishing the storm would stop.  
"Haaa...why won't it just go away? How am I supposed to get anything done at this rate?"

She put her hands together, fingers interlocked, and looked up the rafters dramatically.

"O, great Kami-sama. I appreciate your gift to mankind, but could you please let up for a day so that I can care for this shrine like I was hired to do?"  
There was no answer, of course, save for the howl of the wind. She shivered and pulled her legs closer to her.

"Well, at least this storm means that those four will stay in town longer..."

Kita, Mitami, Nishi, and Higashi...she could honestly say without hesitation that if it came down to it, she'd rather it keep raining forever if it kept them away. They usually only stopped in front of the shrine and tested the doors to see if they were locked, but the thought of them trying to break in again made her fearful. If they got in the next time...there was no telling what they'd do to her.

With that thought in mind, she closed her eyes and prayed again; this time wishing for the rain to fall even harder. As if in answer of her wish, the wind howled louder, the water fell harder, and she heard the crackle of thunder a short distance away.

The girl smiled.

That was, until she heard a faint dripping sound and, opening her eyes, saw that a trickle of water had started to come in through a crack in the ceiling. She made an awkward, strangled noise before scrambling to her feet and snatching up a box by the door. The box contained old scraps of cloth, which she used to stuff into the crack. It worked, but there were suddenly several other leaks, all of which she frantically worked to fill. As soon as she reached the large crack, the one that let in the light behind a glistening spider's web, she nearly fell back on her rear in fright as a knock came on the doors (impeccably timed with a lightning flash and crack of thunder).

A shriek escaped her, making the web's resident retreat further into the rafters, and she held a hand to her chest that held a rapidly beating heart.

Her first, most horrific thought was that the four brothers had returned, until she remembered that they would never knock. No, their arrivals were usually heralded by much fiercer pounding accompanied by a lot of yelling.

"Okuni! Open up, you worthless girl!" they would have said immediately. But this visitor did no such thing.

Cautious, she held up the lamp which she gripped with shaky fingers and raised it to the door. With equally shaky hands, she unlocked the doors, carefully pushing one open partway.

"H-hello?" she called out to the person on the other side. "Is someone there?"

For a moment, no one answered, but then she had to stifle another scream as someone stepped from the darkness. She stilled her fearful heart as she realized that it was not the four. No, this stranger was a great bit more...well, for lack of a better term, strange. His outfit was incredibly brightly colored, even in the darkness. Teal, green, red, yellow, rich purple...this stranger was covered in color. Even his face was not devoid of it; odd red lines decorated his nose and the skin around his eyes.

"U-um..." she stammered, still shaken. "You are...?"

"Just a simple medicine seller...seeking shelter from this storm." the man answered slowly.

Okuni could not help but stare a bit at the way he seemed to pause between words. She'd never heard such a speech pattern before. Nonetheless, she opened the door a bit more, relieved that her fears were unfounded.

"Oh, of course. Please, come in."

With that, she shoved the door open the rest of the way, allowing the medicine seller to enter. She got another fright as she turned from closing the door; the shrine's largest arachnid resident had chosen that time to descend right in front of the man.

Instantly, Okuni scrambled forward, catching the spider in her hands.

"Kureha!" she admonished the creature. "What was that? You've never done that before!"

Indeed, the spider made it a point to avoid anyone who entered the shrine, with the exception of Okuni herself. For some strange reason; the spider liked to descend from her web and settle near the lantern whenever Okuni was close. For that reason, as odd as it seemed, the girl had come to see the spider as a sort of...pet. Of course, calling the spider by name in front of the stranger made her feel a bit embarrassed.

"Kureha?" the man asked calmly, glancing at her hands.

"Oh...I'm sorry. This is Kureha." she answered, opening her hands so that her palms were side by side.

There sat the spider, large and fat; with rather attractive bands of teal and yellow coloring, patches of a bright pink decorating its belly. The legs spanned nearly the entire length of the girl's fingers, and to any outsider it was altogether an unusual, sort of frightening sight. Yet the spider showed no hostility towards the girl, sitting calmly in the warmth of her palms.

"There's an old story about the founder of this shrine. They say that she was a beautiful priestess, talented at weaving. Many men tried to court her, both for her skills and her beauty, but she refused them all. She said she was bound by her duty to the shrine, and would not marry. One day, a samurai, in a fit of anger, strangled the priestess and threw her into the lake near this shrine. The priestess' name was Kureha. This spider...seeing her somehow reminded me of the story, so I gave her that name..." she trailed off, feeling embarrassed again. She didn't particularly want to explain that she viewed the spider as a companion. How foolish would that sound?

"I see. Then it is a pleasure to meet you, Kureha." the man said in that odd, pausing manner. He was glancing down at the spider, who slowly descended the girl's hands with a strand of silk before scurrying up the wall.

"Oh, I haven't told you my own name, have I? How strange, introducing a spider but not myself," the girl laughed. "I am Okuni. I take care of this shrine during the day."

She didn't ask for his name, just sort of stared oddly at him, trying to decide if she should fear him or not. The more she looked at him, though, the more she felt guilty for just standing there for so long. He was dripping water onto the floor, his clothes soaked through and adding weight to his form; he was already carrying a large medicine chest with him. Okuni felt even more foolish.

"Ah! I'm so sorry! Here I am babbling while you're soaked to the bone! Please, come this way, I'll build a fire."

She tugged on one of the colorful sleeves, carefully leading the man across the room to a small portable hearth she had placed in the corner. She had initially worried that having it there would defile the shrine, but she only used it to cook and boil water, it wasn't as if she was tearing off chunks of the wall and burning them.

"I'm sorry it's so small, but if you sit there you should dry off fairly quickly." she said. "At any rate, I would advise against traveling the road at this point. The storm doesn't seem like it will stop any time soon."

At that, she cast a glance towards the doors again, where a close rumble of thunder had made the doors rattle a bit. Shaking her head, she moved to fetch some sort of towel or cloth that the medicine seller could sit on, so that he was not sitting in a puddle.

"I must thank you for your hospitality," the man had said quietly as he settled in.

"Oh, not at all. What other purpose does a shrine have, if not to be a haven for travelers?"

'Just as long as he's not some decadent fool like the ones who wrecked this place to begin with.' she added to herself.

Okuni watched with interest as he unstrapped the medicine chest from his back and set it beside the hearth. He opened one of the drawers on the front and withdrew an item which, to her horror, leaked a stream of water onto the floor. The rain must've permeated the chest

"It's all ruined, isn't it?"

"Most of it," he answered. "The storm caught me on my way to the capital. Most of my wares have been ruined. I will have to buy more ingredients when I get the chance."

"Oh, that's too bad. But...now that I think of it, I think I saw some of this growing in the woods near here." Okuni held up a limp, slightly wilted cluster of leaves with a few small red berries attached. "Ginseng, right?"

"You know about this plant?" the man asked, though it felt more like he was just trying to humor her. She wondered if she was annoying him with all her talking. But really, she hadn't had company in so long. Or at the very least, company that wasn't yelling at her and threatening her.

"Sort of. I do a lot of foraging for things to eat, so it helps to know what's edible and what will poison you," she explained.

"Oh? You don't receive any compensation for caring for the shrine?"

"Er, well...I do, but um..."

"Yes?" the man seemed suddenly intrigued, which caught her off guard just slightly.  
She leaned back, away from him.

"Um well..." she squirmed, uncomfortable. She was not sure if it was prudent to tell a stranger about her problems. It was not for him to worry about. "It's nothing."

"Then perhaps you could tell me about this shrine?"

"Ah, certainly, Kusuriuri-san." she took a deep breath, glad to stray away from the other topic. "Well, I don't really know much about it, other than what I've heard. I'm not a priestess or anything of the sort, just a caretaker. From what I hear, this place was originally built to worship a kami of rain."

At that, the medicine seller gave a very slight chuckle.

"Fitting, wouldn't you say?" he commented.

"You're right about that," Okuni laughed a little. "Well, they claimed that the waters of the lake nearby had healing powers, and people came from all around to test its properties. Many tried to take the waters and sell them as a miracle elixir of sorts. Naturally, that would have angered the kami, as the waters were not put there for selfish gain. It is said that the kami punished the people by denying them rain, resulting in a hundred-year drought. The lake dried up, and the waterfall ceased to flow."

She concluded her tale, adjusting her legs beneath her as they had started to grow stiff.

"But the lake is nearly overflowing now," said the medicine seller, sounding slightly amused.

"Yes. Someone must have done something particularly pleasing to the kami." Okuni chuckled. It was rather ironic. "Either that, or he is punishing the people a second time by flooding them."

The room fell silent after that, the only sounds coming from the storm outside. Suddenly, Okuni's stomach gave a rather loud growl, breaking the silence, and she cringed in embarrassment at the slight chuckle that came from the medicine seller.

"Ah, I've been so busy today that I haven't eaten. Would you like something? Um...I'm not sure that there's much though." she offered, smiling sheepishly.

"Certainly. Whatever you can find is fine." he answered, returning to examining his ruined wares. He certainly did not seem concerned with much of anything.

Okuni, meanwhile, retreated to the other side of the room, sorting through some boxes until she found a small wooden one. Thankfully, it was untouched by the rain. Inside was a bundle of dried sweet potatoes, as well as a bundle of dried fish. She frowned, hoping there was more than that. Beneath the two bundles was something wrapped in a cloth, which turned out to be a few rice balls. Ah, that would do! She picked up the box and returned to her seat next to the hearth, setting it down between them with the lid open.

"I can cook the sweet potatoes and the fish, if you want, to soften them up."

"No, that's not necessary. I can just eat these," the man said, picking up one of the rice balls. "Besides, you've already done enough for a traveler like myself."

"Well, if you say so. I wish there was more I could do, but it's difficult not having much money. If it wasn't for those four..." Okuni trailed off.

"Oh? Then you aren't the only caretaker."

"No. There are four monks that come here from time to time. We were all supposed to care for the shrine, but honestly, they display the most disgraceful behavior I've ever seen." she said with a sigh.

"Then that is the reason you have to forage nearby?"  
She nodded. "An Official sends payment for our services twice a month. But, the others don't do anything at all. They're hardly here, and when they are it's only to take the payment and return to town."

"And what is it they do there?" the medicine seller asked, examining a strange, metallic object.

"They gamble, drink, and indulge themselves. When they return, it's always with a woman. They try to go into the Honden, even though I warned them that it is a sacred place. I grew tired of it, so I keep the doors locked. Now, the only way to the Honden is through the heiden. And as you can see, the only entrance is through here." Okuni gestured towards the entrance to the hallway a few feet away. Latticework separated it from the room they were in.

"Ah...forgive me. I should not trouble you with such things."

"No worries," he replied with a small smile. "I enjoy hearing the stories of the people I meet on my travels."

"Is that so? Well...I'm going to go find some candles." Okuni announced, standing up and swiftly crossing the room.

It fell into quiet once more, the medicine seller looked over each item in the medicine chest, while the girl searched a shelf for some candles to light the room better. The storm roared like a hungry beast outside, and the spiders lay still in the shelter of their webs. Once the candles were set out and lit, Okuni retreated to the corner once more, huddled in the blanket again.

For a while, she simply watched the man's inspection of his inventory; he'd take out an item, turn it this way and that, and then either place it back in the chest or toss it into a pile. Sadly, it seemed, a large portion of the goods went into the pile. Only things that were in a case or wrapped in cloth were spared. At one point, he pulled out a stack of what looked to be books and Okuni, curious to see what they were, leaned a bit closer.

"Curious? Have a look," the medicine man said with a slight smirk, tilting the books towards her.

She struggled to find words, mortified at what she saw. Finally, she composed herself.

"That...doesn't look like medicine to me." she said at last, tone rather casual sounding despite the red that decorated her face.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

The rain must have lulled her to sleep. Some time later, Okuni found herself jolting awake with a gasp. She had had an odd dream, she recalled, but the details of it were already growing faint. There had been a woman in a colorful kimono, and blood...so much blood. That was all she remembered, but upon waking she could not shake the feeling of foreboding that felt like it had draped itself over her.

Groaning, she shifted to stand so that she could rekindle the hearth, which had started to burn lower. The large medicine chest still sat there, the contents having been sorted through a while ago. But there was one thing missing; where was the traveler? Had her guest been insulted by her falling asleep and left? That wouldn't have been particularly smart, with the rain still pounding on the outside of the shrine.

Rubbing her eyes a bit, Okuni took a glance around the room, briefly thinking in horror that the man had gone deeper into the shrine. However, that was not the case; instead, he was standing near the entrance, sticking slips of paper to the walls.

"Um..." Okuni spoke. "What are you doing?"

She'd known the man was strange, but she hadn't really thought to question him about his origins. None of her business, after all. Still, his style of dress was odd, not representative of any regions that she knew of. That was just one clue that he was...unusual.

'Then again, I am just a country girl. Haven't exactly traveled the world, have I?'

The materials suggested that he was much more than he claimed his profession to be. His style of speech was odd and almost mystic in a way, but she'd mostly ignored that since he was a traveler in need. However, this certainly took the cake. What was he, some wanna-be exorcist?

"These are protective charms," he answered. "For warding away evil."  
He really WAS a wanna-be exorcist. Ignoring the fact that she already knew what the slips were for...Had the world decided to go to hell as soon as she fell asleep? Or was he trying to con her somehow?

"Evil? But this is a shrine. What kind of evil would infest a place like this? Is there something...?"

"It is merely a precaution."

"Precaution?" she echoed.

"There is no telling what forces would try to sneak inside...while the caretaker is asleep." the man said slowly. "Why? Is there something?"

He was reflecting her question, just a harmless question really. Still, Okuni couldn't help but feel, just slightly, that he was accusing her of something.

"No. I mean, I feel strange all of a sudden, but it was just because of a dream..." she answered.  
"A dream?"

"There was...a woman. And a room painted with blood. That is as much as I remember. It was just a dream."

Then why had she woken up gasping for air? It had certainly felt real...

"Okuni-san, I wonder if you might help me with something."

The medicine seller's voice brought her back to reality. She blinked fiercely, as if she'd been caught up in something. He was crouched by the medicine chest again, a middle drawer pulled open as he withdrew several objects.

"Oh. Of course. What can I do?"

"If you would, simply carry these to the door," he said, gesturing at the objects. Okuni took that opportunity to look down at them as she gathered them in her arms.

"These are...?"

"Scales," he answered. "A tool of my trade, of course."

"Of course." Okuni said quietly, not quite believing the claim.

They were the strangest scales she'd ever seen. Bejeweled, gleaming, and incredibly light, she couldn't figure out how they worked. Nonetheless, she carried them over to the door as instructed where, to her surprise, they moved on their own. One by one, they floated upwards, setting themselves in a straight line before the door, two tiny bells hanging from the ends.

Okuni stared at the spectacle, wondering if she was still asleep. A discreet pinch told her otherwise. Certainly, she'd seen some strange things before...when she'd been a child. Every child imagined they were oni-slayers or pretended that their toys were alive.  
Growing older meant growing out of those childish imaginings. Granted, she was a rather superstitious person, having grown up where superstition was widespread. She spent her childhood hearing all sorts of stories of spirits and demons her mother would tell her. Her father instilled in her many beliefs about when to plant and harvest crops. Both of her parents had warned her against certain practices, more so than a city family would have. Thus, she was not completely against the idea that strange things would happen.

But the things she'd witnessed since the traveler's arrival...the odd attire of the man, the dream, the scales moving on their own...they were certainly not things she'd ever expected to witness first hand. It was as if, with the traveler's arrival, everything else had come along at the same time. Had he brought the storm as well?

"Who are you exactly?" she asked the man, suspicious.

"I'm just a simple medicine peddler," he repeated his earlier answer, to her slight annoyance.

"If you say so," she shook her head. Why bother even asking? The man seemed like he would have been perfectly happy without speaking at all. Perhaps she was lucky he was answering her.

"Well then," she decided to dismiss it. As long as she had not accidentally invited in some crazed murderer, and he respected the place, she didn't particularly care to learn more. "is there anything else we should-"

The man raised a hand, a single finger raised, as if to hush her.

"Listen."

At first, she didn't hear anything beyond the sounds of the storm outside. She thought that perhaps her guest was toying with her, and looked to him skeptically for an explanation. Still he held up his finger.

And then she heard it.

Pounding...no, thrumming. It was sort of distant sounding, like a soft beating on a drum, like a faint heartbeat. And all at once she felt her own heartbeat jump.

"What...is that?" she asked, breathless with surprise. "What would make such a noise?"

The thrumming was growing louder, as if it were coming closer. It was surrounding them now, the distance it was coming from impossible to discern. She was growing a bit paranoid, heart pounding furiously against her ribcage, breaths coming in shallow, quick puffs to match her frantic heart. Whatever it was, it was definitely not caused by the storm. No, this sounded almost as if it were alive. The noise seemed like it was a...pulse.

"Mononoke," said the medicine seller, answering the question she'd nearly forgotten she'd asked.

"Mononoke? Why would one be here at the shrine?"

"You've heard of them." It was not a question.

"My mother warned me against things like fox spirits, and my father told me about oni. I have heard of them, but I did not think I would ever encounter one. What would one be doing here?" her voice was slightly panicked, full of fright.

"Who knows? Mononoke do not think in the same manner as humans. Its reasons for being here are beyond our comprehension. Okuni-san, I don't suppose you've seen anything strange?"

"No," the girl shook her head. "I've been living here almost a year and haven't seen anything unusual...unless you count the four monks. What makes you think there is a mononoke here?" she inquired.

She was cut off as the thrumming returned, this time louder than before, sounding like it was pounding against the walls of the shrine.

But what did it want from her? If it was a mononoke, why choose now to make itself known? She quickly went over a list in her head, trying to remember if she'd forgotten to do something, or had broken some cardinal rule that would have attracted something to the place.

Had she broken a strap on her geta? No, they were fine. She would have remembered breaking one.

Had she broken a tooth of her comb? No, it was in impeccable condition.

Had she slept facing north by accident? It was possible, given that she had fallen asleep without intending to. But that wouldn't have done it...would it?

"Oh no. I brought it here, didn't I?" she stated, horrified.

"Hm?" the medicine seller glanced up at her. Was she admitting to something?

"I slept facing north! Everyone knows that sleeping facing the north summons ghosts to visit!" she muttered, flustered.

"Such a menial thing would not have brought it here," he assured her with some amusement. "Besides, you didn't fall asleep facing north. There is no need to worry."

"Then...why-"

A loud, sharp thump cut her off, and a second later, the same sound slammed against the shrine doors, punctuated by a loud shout.

"Okuni! Open these doors right now, you useless girl!"

The girl's eyes widened in shock.

"No...Why would they come back during the storm?"

"Someone you know?" the medicine seller asked casually.

"It's those four I was telling you about!" replied she. "But they usually wouldn't come back from town so soon! Not with the weather like this!"

The medicine did not answer. Instead, he stepped to a smaller box next to the medicine chest, the lid opening on its own. From within, he withdrew a glimmering, golden sword with a strange face shaped into the end. Okuni was about to ask about it, but a second demand came from the other side of the door.

"Open up!"

Okuni shook herself out of her momentary stupor, cautiously approaching the door that they were pounding on furiously.

"I won't let you in! After what you've done, how could you even think that I would?"

"Let us in, you little brat!" another of the men chimed in.

"I won't!"

"Let us in!"

"So you can defile the shrine again?" she retorted.

"Open the door now!"

"No! Leave!"

"Open up now, or I'll-"

Any and all arguments the man may have had were cut off by a long, horrific scream and a loud crunching noise. Okuni's eyes widened even further, and suddenly, one of the scales on the floor lowered on one side.

"So it finally shows itself," said the medicine seller.

Okuni probably would have asked him what he meant, were it not for the fact that she was frantically scrambling to undo the latch on the door. Wicked men or no, whatever had happened out there sounded horrifying. The doors were quickly thrown open and Okuni, frozen in place, saw what had happened.

The prideful monk lay dead in front of the shrine's steps. Vibrant even in the dark; blood splashed the steps, the ground, and the doors of the shrine as well. His body lay mangled, limbs twisted grotesquely and bent at odd angles, and his torso had been torn in two.

Horrified, Okuni could not move her eyes from the scene, even after the remaining three monks shoved past her, pushing her to the floor in their haste.  
For some reason, it was not the blood that disturbed her, nor the sight of the mangled limbs, twisted as if in a macabre dance. No, it was not even the stench and the permanent scream fixed on the man's face.  
It was the sight of eight spindly shadows retreating into the darkness.  
She remained there, her eyes staring unblinking into the night, until a pair of hands seized her and forced her to stand, turning her eyes from the horrific spectacle. There stood the medicine man, the golden sword held in one hand.

"What did you see?" he asked of her.

"I saw..."

Okuni looked up at him, rain-soaked hair sticking to her cheeks, and she spoke but two words.

"...a spider."

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Notes:

This story was written about two years ago, after I watched the series for the first time. So enamored was I with the rich colors and storytelling and music that at the time, writing this was the only thing on my mind. It feels very trite and cliché now that I read it again, but it's all in good fun.  
In the story, I mention that some of the characters are "brothers," however they are not actually related. This is more referring to the "brotherhood" of a monastery.  
I also mention a couple of terms to do with shrines.  
Haiden- A building in front of the heart of the shrine, where ceremonies, worship, etc take place. This building is open to the public.  
Honden- The shrine's most sacred building, closed to the public. It is separated from the rest of the area by an outdoor walkway and is enclosed in a small fence. It is believed that the area's kami is enshrined here. The difference in this and the story's depiction of the honden is that I envision this shrine to be completely enclosed, so instead it is connected by an indoor hall, with a lattice door showing the hall at the haiden and a solid door closing off the honden proper.

Ema- Small wooden plaques on which worshipers write their prayers or wishes. Often hung outside the shrine next to a path, the ema are received by the shrine's kami.  
If you want more information on the layout of a shrine, visit the page on Shinto Shrines on wikipedia.  
Normally I would discourage using wikipedia as a reliable source of information. However, the page has a handy diagram of the basic layout of one such shrine as described in the story, and will give you a much better understanding of the layout.

See you all next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

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_'The web dances with sparkling drops of dew, stained crimson with blood.'_

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"Wh-what was that? What on earth was that?"

"That..thing killed Higashi! It tore him right in half!"

The remaining three monks had shoved their way into the shrine, and stood in a semi-circle before the hearth. They were busily arguing about what the creature outside had been, and why it would be there. The medicine seller had pasted more protective charms on and around the doors, which had started to glow a reddish color. The room was loud, filled with the shouts of the three monks, and though they had seen the medicine seller, they were far too busy accusing each other to focus on him.

The only one who was completely silent was Okuni. Silent and motionless, she stood hugging herself, studying the pattern of autumn leaves at the bottom of her kimono. She couldn't differentiate the red of the leaves from the red of the blood that seemed burned into her vision. Okuni still had not quite recovered from the shock of what she'd witnessed, though at least she'd moved away from the door. In fact, she was as far as possible from it, backed against the heiden's lattice door as if the creature would return for her. She stared in horror at the entrance, wincing every time she heard the creature slam against the doors.

She only looked up when the three monks had come to stand before her, blocking her way.

"Okuni!" one of the monks demanded. "What was that? Your doing? Was that some sort of sickening guard dog? That desperate to keep us out, are you?"

"I? I had nothing to do with it! I had never had any sort of problem before you decided to return early!"

"Don't lie! You must have had something to do with it! If not for you, Higashi would still be alive!"

"I did nothing!" she screamed in fury.

"She is speaking the truth," the medicine seller spoke up from his position near the shrine entrance. He'd been placing more scales on the floor, the glimmering pieces almost covering the walkable space, and had drawn a line of salt around that.

"The mononoke showed little signs of activity until the four of you—ah, your pardon, the three of you—arrived."

Despite the man's words, Okuni could not help but feel a bit guilty. Had she opened the doors a moment sooner, no one would have died. As much as she disliked the men, she had no desire to see anyone die.

"Mononoke? What the hell are you talking about? Oh, I get it, you've been listening to her stupid little superstitions, haven't you?" the short, fat monk pointed rudely at the girl.

"They're not just stupid superstitions! They have a root in reality, you great greedy pig!" the girl retorted. She wasn't normally so angry, but the disturbing sight of the mangled body still haunted her, and yelling was helping her feel better...at least a little bit.

"Respecting the land, respecting sacred ground, staying out of things that aren't your business; they're all meant to keep things like this from happening!" she continued.

"How dare you speak to me like that? A man your superior? I ought to punish you for that, girl. I ought to-"

"That is quite enough," The medicine seller said calmly. He had stepped between the monks and the girl, and now Okuni found herself staring at the back of his attire, a strange eye-shaped design meeting her gaze. The monks backed away, though they continued to glare at Okuni.

"Okuni-san has informed me of the mononoke's Katachi. For now, we must discern the Makoto."

"Th-then that spider was...?" Okuni asked softly.

"Jorōgumo."

"Jorōgumo? That thing out there? That's impossible! Things like that can't exist! A wolf, or a-" the handsome monk protested.

"If it were a wolf, there would be many more. You may believe it or not, but what killed that man was...not of this world." the medicine man stated, very calm despite the monk's angry protests. He clasped the golden sword in one hand, holding it outstretched in the air. "Now tell me...why were you so hasty to return to this shrine?"

"Heh, like we'd tell you anything." the third monk, who had done most of the earlier yelling, spoke.

"If you do not, then I am afraid that I will be unable to deal with the mononoke," spoke the medicine seller.

"B-but can't you just kill it with that sword of yours?" the fat monk sputtered.

"The sword cannot be drawn until I learn of the mononoke's Katachi, Makoto, and Kotowari." he explained. "The Katachi is known. Now, we must discover the Makoto."

"What...exactly does that mean?" asked Okuni.

"The Katachi is what the mononoke looks like, the form which it takes. In essence, the first step to defeating a mononoke is to identify it. You have already informed me that it was a spider. Unless there was some mistake?"

"No." Okuni shook her head. "There was no way it could be anything else. It was an enormous spider, the size of a cow, at least. I think...I think it was headed towards the lake."

"The Kotowari is the mononoke's reason, or what it desires. The Makoto is the mononoke's truth, or rather, the circumstances that spurred it to act. Without knowing these three things, I cannot draw the sword of exorcism."

"So then...the next step is to find out what it wants?" Okuni asked, receiving a slight nod in answer.

"Yes, that will be met with an overwhelming success. Why don't you just step outside and ask it then, girl?" the handsome monk snapped.

"I've had enough of this! All we can do is work towards finding out why it's here! Stop blaming me for something you know nothing about!" she yelled in retort.

The creature was still pounding on the outside of the shrine, desperate to get in. As they watched, some of the charms holding the doors shut started to bleed out their ink, as if some invisible force were draining them.

"I suggest that one of you say something, because that thing isn't going to take long to get in here," Okuni said, now feeling little but anger.

No one heeded her advice. As she and the medicine seller both looked to the men for answers, the spider's pounding on the doors continued, and the ink continued to bleed from the charms. Any moment now, the barrier would be broken, and the monster would breach the shrine. It would breach the shrine, and someone else would die...

"Someone say something!" Okuni pleaded.

A cracking noise sounded across the space, the beams of the shrine beginning to split under the force of the mononoke's blows.

"I don't know what it was!" the fat monk burst out.

At long last. Everyone looked to him for an explanation.

"We were...going to bring back another girl, you know? Same as always. There was this real pretty one, with this necklace with crystal beads. She kept smiling at us, so I thought Mitami should invite her back..." at this, the man paused, taking several quick gasps of air as if speaking had somehow winded him.

"I see. And why were you bringing the women here?" the medicine seller asked, holding the sword up as if it too could hear.

"We...they were for our own pleasure, okay? Sometimes they didn't want to come along, so we'd have to do a little...convincing."

"Convincing? You mean you..." Okuni shook her head in disbelief.

"Kidnapped them," finished the medicine seller.

"But that wouldn't have anything to do with that thing out there!" the monk protested. "It's not got a thing to do with spiders!"

At that, the medicine seller merely shook his head.

"Jorōgumo are born the same way any other mononoke is. The lingering regrets and malice of a spirit...they bind themselves to a source of human anguish. The shape the creature takes depends on what is available to the mononoke's use."

"What could it have possibly used?" the angry monk yelled.

"Obviously...spiders." answered Okuni. At that, she glanced up at the webs above the door. Kureha was absent.

"Those damn bugs? Then it's your fault it happened! If you'd just kill the damn things, this never would have-"

"No," the medicine seller cut in. "They were here a long time before you five came to this place. They were the only residents of the shrine. None of you have anything to do with them being here."

"The form of the mononoke...it was just...a coincidence?" said Okuni.

"Yes," the man replied, looking to the sword. It had not made any reply. The medicine seller frowned. "However...that story is not the Makoto. There must be something more. What brought you back to the shrine in this tempest? What is it?"

Okuni would have almost said that the medicine seller sounded impatient. Though, when dealing with those four...one could easily understand his frustrations. They were hiding something, something she didn't even know about. Now was the time to lay hidden emotions and secrets bare.

"That woman...she just kept smiling, it was almost creepy, you know? We were going to turn in for the night, and so we went to pay, but then she turns to us and smiles again. Then she says 'I know what you did' and opens her mouth and then..." the fat monk continued.

"And then?" the medicine man urged.

"Kita said that her teeth were sharp, and her mouth was crawling with spiders," Mitami offered for him. "We all thought he was drunk. But then we felt them crawling on us and we just knew we had to get as far away from there as we could."

"So you came back here?" Okuni was livid. There was something more to the story, something they were hiding.

"I didn't mean to do it," Kita said quietly, his already cherry-colored face somehow seeming redder. "I never meant to...hurt her."

"H-hurt her? What did you do?" the girl seemed horrified.

"Tell me what happened," the medicine seller urged calmly.

"She wouldn't stay away from me, so I...shoved her down. She..hit her head, and then she wouldn't move. I swear I didn't mean to! I didn't even care if I got a woman or not, I just wanted to get away from her!"

So absorbed in his tale was Okuni that she did not see the barrier of salt slowly shifting. The charms had all bled out. Abruptly, the pounding stopped.

"You killed her," she said in disbelief.

"No! No! I didn't mean to!" the man all but sobbed. "I didn't mean to!"

The medicine seller, however, had not failed to notice his barriers steadily being broken down. As the last of the salt cleared away, breaking the line, his eyes widened a fraction. A few of the scales on the floor tilted to the left.

"It's here. Get away from the doors!"

Okuni, still pressed against the door to the heiden, did not know if he was referring to those or the other doors. However, she wasn't willing to find out, and so retreated so that she stood next to him in the center of the room. The other two monks did the same, expressions of terror on their faces.

"Kita!" Mitami called. "Come over here!"

"I didn't mean to!" Kita continued to cry. "I didn't mean to!"

"The...the roof!" Okuni gasped, pointing up towards the spider webs.

Indeed, it seemed to be peeling away, the wood splintering as something from the outside pulled apart the wood. A sudden loud, piercing shriek filled the air, the unearthly noise stopping Kita's whimpering as he stared up above him in terror. Before their eyes, the wood cracked away the rest of the way, and a torrent of rain poured into the shrine as the roof was torn away. A long string of silk pulled Kita up into the darkness, not even leaving him time to scream. The only indication that he had even been there was the stream of blood that sprayed down with the rain.

~~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~~

They had to retreat into the heiden. As much as Okuni hated to defile the sanctity of the shrine for fear of what would happen, they had little choice. The storm roared even louder than before with the roof of the haiden gone. Okuni was shockingly calm this time, seemingly unaffected by the death as she watched the medicine seller paste more charms over the doors.

She had only been in the hall once, to clean. It was close to the honden, so she didn't really want to get too close. There was another set of doors separating them from the innermost part of the shrine, but at the rate they were going, they'd have to retreat even deeper within.

"Stranger, I don't suppose that was it, was it?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "That was not the Makoto. There is something else. And those two have yet to speak." he said, glancing at the remaining two monks.

By then, Mitami had broken down into near hysteria. He alternated between horrified muttering and laughter. Cautiously, Okuni approached him, and heard him murmuring.

"I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have done it. My fault...I brought this down upon us."

"Mitami-san," Okuni began carefully. "What shouldn't you have done?"

"H-haha...we defiled them, you know. We sold some of them, too!" he cackled. "They were so easy to con. Just a few sweet words and they crawled after me."

"Wh-what?"

"All of them. They never went home." Mitami smiled.

"No...no it can't be..." Okuni whispered. "You...you told me they left. That they...oh great kami..."

"Hmm," the medicine seller looked at the sword's figure-head. "There's more to it, is there not?"

At that, he looked to Nishi, who had so far been rather silent. Quite a change from earlier, when he'd been doing little but throwing around accusatory phrases. He glared at the medicine seller, though the latter seemed completely unaffected by it.

"Nishi-san...?" Okuni spoke.

"Please tell us all that you know," the medicine seller asked of him.

The corrupt monk stared back at him, not budging at all. But then the banging started up again. The jorōgumo had returned. Mitami was no use to them, having broken down into hysteria. Over and over again, he muttered that he should have died, that he shouldn't have done 'it,' that he should die. At the rate things were going, that wasn't too far off from happening. Okuni marveled at how quickly things had gone to hell. And how strange it was that it all seemed to be linked to the medicine seller's arrival. She felt a bit sickened at her own calmness, staring at the two monks through her dark bangs. She felt somehow that she should be a bit more frightened, but some small part of her was glad they were getting what they deserved. She tried desperately to shake her own wicked thoughts.  
The pounding was louder now, and like before, the charms had started to bleed their ink. Okuni grew panicked. If it got in again...

"Please," she pleaded. "Please, you must know something."

At long last, Nishi closed his eyes, releasing a breath.

"Very well..." he said reluctantly. "I will tell you..."

The lady shrinekeeper prayed that this would reveal something, anything that would help the medicine seller rid them of the mononoke.

"It longs for revenge," the monk said.

The teeth on the sword's figure-head clicked together.

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**Only one note this chapter: **

**The monks; Higashi was the "prideful" monk who was killed last time. Nishi is the "angry" monk, Mitami is the "handsome" monk, and the fat monk is Kita. So, with that, let's keep on goin'!**


	3. Chapter 3

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_Let me pass, let me pass. Through the thousand crimson gates._

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"Revenge? What for?"

Okuni's voice trembled, but she wanted to know, wanted to hear the truth behind the sudden appearance of the mononoke. And so, even if it revealed a horrible truth that she never wanted to hear, she was going to listen. Her anger at the monks drove her to that desire, and she felt a sense of gratefulness to the mononoke, though she didn't care to admit it.

"This did not begin with us. We only served to aggravate the situation. No...this began before any of us were even born. It began with Kureha."

"The priestess?" inquired the medicine seller.

"It was hundreds of years ago, within this shrine. Kureha was the shrine's founder, a lady of great skill and talent. She spun robes of the finest silk, renowned for being protective garments because they were washed within the lake. Travelers would come from far and wide to buy the robes, but many also desired the waters themselves," Nishi stated.

"I...see. The waters are sacred, and since they are near the shrine, considered a part of the shrine as well. Kureha was the shrine's protector. There was no way she'd allow anyone to take the water with them," Okuni realized.

Nishi nodded, continuing with his story.

"There were four shrinekeepers before; monks, like my brothers and I. Kureha hired them to help her care for the shrine while she did her weaving. However, we humans are weak. Kureha was very beautiful. It did not take long for them to succumb to their desires."

"They...they killed her, didn't they?" Okuni barely whispered.

"Yes. They did as they desired, and then they threw her body into the lake. There she has remained, for hundreds of years," the monk answered.

"How...did you know all of this?"

"My brothers and I...we are repeating the sins of the four who came before us. We did not even realize it...but then we found something..."

A screech sounded from the other side of the door. The new set of scales the medicine seller had set up were rattling, rotating wildly in all directions as they tried to pinpoint the mononoke's location. And suddenly, all went silent. The only sound in the shrine was Mitami's whimpering. Even the storm had gone silent. The medicine seller stood facing the doors, eyes fixed on the steadily bleeding charms. A quick glance at the sword in his hand, and Okuni could have sworn she saw him sigh.

"It isn't enough. There's more. What did you find within the shrine?" he almost demanded.

Abruptly, Mitami stopped laughing.

"Wh-what? You want me to go there?"

"Huh?"

The medicine seller, the lady shrinekeeper, and the last monk looked over at the hysteric man. He was staring at the doors to the honden, eyes wide. Though, it looked a lot less like he was looking at the doors themselves, and more like he was seeing something that they were not.

"In there? Really? You'll forgive me?"

Okuni squinted as she spotted a shape on the floor, a flash of color catching her eye.

"Ku...reha?"

Indeed, the spider sat on the floor, front legs moving slightly. But...no one else had seemed to notice it; none but the medicine seller.

"Wait...come back! Don't go in there!" Okuni called out. Yet, she didn't feel her heart in her call.

_Let him wander in, let him get what he deserves..._

Mitami was following the spider, following the little creature with its many spindly legs...following it to the innermost part of the shrine.

"No, stop!" this time, it was Nishi who had spoken, desperation in his voice.

Whatever lay within, whatever it was that they'd 'found' was making him anxious. Yet, he still hadn't noticed the spider. Okuni stepped forward, about to cross over to the other side of the hallway and drag the monk back, but the medicine seller's voice stopped her.

"Don't," he said in warning. "You mustn't cross the barrier."

The barrier...Okuni glanced down near her feet, noticing for the first time the line of charms there, drawing a circle up the walls and on the roof. How had she failed to notice them before?

"But we have to stop him from going in there!" she protested. "If we don't, he'll..."

"Die." the medicine seller finished for her. "Do you wish to become prey as well?"

Though she hated it, Okuni had little choice but to follow his advice. He was right. She could do nothing, and they still did not know of the jorōgumo's Kotowari. Without it, there was nothing that could be done.

As she watched, Mitami steadily approached the doors, arriving in front of them with a hazy smile.

"With this, you'll forgive me?"

The doors snapped open. The room was completely silent for just a moment, but then the scales started rattling. They rotated and jingled wildly, most of them tilting in the direction of the doors. Mitami smiled and stepped forward, one foot prepared to cross the threshold.

"You must not!" the medicine seller warned, but the monk was oblivious to his calls.

"Mitami! Mitami, get a hold of yourself!"

Nishi ran to his fellow monk, tugging on his arm, but to no avail. Suddenly, the pounding and shrieking started up again, the sound of the storm returning full blast. The charms were disintegrating from the doors, crumbling away to nothing.

"It's here!"

The medicine seller took action, countless new ones flying from his sleeves and plastering themselves all over the walls and doors. Okuni squeezed her eyes shut as they whipped past her face to paste onto the wall behind her. Nishi threw his arms in front of his face to shield himself from them, not noticing the doors shutting beside him. At last, when the flurry had died down, Okuni dared to open her eyes. The paper covered the entirety of the hall, save for a few spots on the ceiling. A wall of glowing red eyes stared back at her as she caught her breath from the sudden movement. Just as she turned to chastise the medicine seller for doing that without warning, Nishi noticed that someone was missing.

"Mitami! Where did Mitami go?"

"Wh-what?"

During the flurry of paper, Okuni had been distracted and had not noticed the shrine doors. However, the answer of where Mitami had gone soon made itself clear. There was a scream from within the honden, and a loud sound, like something had been crushed. Okuni bit back a cry of horror as she realized that the monk had met the same fate as his companions. Nishi too realized it; the look on his face said as much.

"Kami...what have we done?" He sank to his knees, hands clamped over his face.

"Nishi-san...please tell us. What is it you found in there? We need to know, or...or else we can't do anything." Okuni's voice was trembling. How much more? How many more would the jorōgumo kill before it was satisfied?

"We found..."

The medicine seller was listening intently, sword held aloft as always, listening. Waiting.

"We found..." here, the monk paused, as if the revelation would spell his end. "We found bones. The bones of countless women who had been lured here. After...when the keepers killed the priestess, they stayed behind, trapped by the decadence they'd fallen into. That was how we knew that we were repeating their sins."

"Yet you did not stop it? You could have turned away from that path! You could have ended it there!" Okuni was close to screaming.

At this, however, the monk's demeanor took a dramatic turn. His expression of horror exchanged itself with a grin, a sadistic smile that spoke volumes.

"You took pleasure in it," the medicine seller stated simply.

"Yes," Nishi agreed. "Mitami and the others enjoyed the process of getting them here, enjoyed toying with them and bending them to their will. I? I enjoyed...what came after."

"Y-you can't mean that you-"

"It was I who disposed of them when we finished with them."

"You're sick! Absolutely sick! I cannot believe I let you back in here!" Okuni shouted.

After Nishi had finished speaking, the thrumming returned. The scales were going crazy again, the pounding returned, the storm howled louder than before. Before their eyes, the roof was being torn away again, completely bypassing the barrier of charms by going for a place where they were not pasted.

"No...no. Not again!" Okuni cried. The medicine seller himself looked slightly anxious, nose wrinkled in minor annoyance.

"It still isn't enough. What is it that is missing? What is your kotowari?"

"There was something fun about it," Nishi was still speaking, oblivious to the hallway's gradual destruction. "Their faces...their screams of agony and flailing as I drowned them...It made me feel so powerful. I delighted in doing it. The others could have their fun with the rest of it."

"You...all four of you...you're insane," Okuni whispered. "Stranger, what should we do? It's going to get in again!"

She could have sworn that the man was sighing, or at least, he'd closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, it was to look at her while he told her something she'd been dreading.

"We have little choice. We must retreat further within."

"I...had feared you would say that." said Okuni.

However, before she could even take a step towards the honden, the corner of the roof was torn completely away, a string of silk drifting in like before. This time, Nishi noticed it, scrambling backwards away from the creature.

"It comes!" the medicine seller shouted, throwing open the doors to the honden by some unseen force.

By then, Okuni knew better than to question his powers, and so looked to the doors. However, she stopped, torn between saving herself and trying to help Nishi. True that he'd killed women, more than she could have imagined, and they had hidden their activities from her, but still...

_Let them get what they deserve..._

"Come in here!"

Snapping out of it, Okuni followed his advice, quickly running into the honden. She turned to beckon the medicine seller into the shrine as well, but stopped short, eyes widening as the charms were sucked off of the walls by a mighty wind. The walls tore away in one chunk, leaving only Nishi, kneeling in the center of the chaos. She could see his lips moving quickly in silent prayer, no doubt begging the gods to spare him. It was not to be so.

The jorōgumo appeared fully then, and the girl could only stare in horror. It was like a massive version of the colorful little spider she was so familiar with. Glittering yellow and teal, orange bands on the legs...and a human torso where the creature's head would have been.

The creature looked directly at her then, revealing a feminine face among a tangle of inky black hair, and smiled. Just as the monks had said, her teeth were crawling with countless minuscule insects. Okuni could not even bring herself to move as the spider picked up the monk, flinging him into the lake (now visible due to walls being torn away) in one movement. Horrified, Okuni reached out a hand, wondering why she hadn't said a word, why she hadn't even tried to save him. And then, as the wind caught her sleeves and whipped them in her face, the doors slammed shut in front of her. The wind had stopped, the howling was gone, there was no more thrumming.

Only darkness.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Note:** A bit shorter this time, but the story is drawing to an end soon. Next chapter will be up soon. I hope you're all enjoying this!


	4. Chapter 4

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_Mirrors make us uneasy because we instinctively fear that the face which looks back at us will not display as our own._

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Okuni did not know how long she sat alone in the dark. She did not know what had happened to the last monk (though he was probably dead by then), or the mysterious medicine seller. She was alone.

She tried to remain calm, tried not to cry out in despair or allow herself to break down. What could she possibly do against such a creature? The medicine seller's charms had worked for a time, but then the jorogumo had found a way around them. The salt hadn't seemed to work at all, though neither of those things mattered at all. The medicine seller was gone, as far as she knew, and she herself had no knowledge of how to set up a barrier in the first place.

She only had one choice, and that was to grope around blindly in the dark, going further into the shrine. The honden was much larger than the other parts, and she'd never been in there before. Needless to say, she was a bit nervous. Not only was she in a forbidden place, but this was where the bones of the keepers' victims were stated to be. This was the root of the entire problem, and she was there alone.

She prayed to the kami for forgiveness as she slowly walked on, the boards creaking slightly as she went. And then, out of seemingly nowhere, a light. Okuni shielded her eyes against the sudden assault, and when she had adjusted to it, glanced all around.

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but the sight would have exceeded her expectations either way. The walls were painted with exquisite landscapes, rich golden fields and blue waterfalls stretching across them. A few folded screens sat on either side of the room, as if leading the way to the altar in the center of the shrine. On either side of the altar were columns tied with sacred rope, and in the center...

A woman.

She was the source of the light, a bright lantern held in her hands as she beckoned to Okuni with one hand. There was something oddly familiar about her, though the girl did not know what it was. The colors of her kimono matched those of the jorōgumo, and that made Okuni wary. However, the woman did not seem malicious, and she was not hiding her face. A gentle smile played on her features, and she continued to beckon to Okuni.

"Let us follow," said a voice beside her, making her scream.

"Stranger! Where did you...?" she gasped. "No, never mind. It is good that you are safe. But...should we really follow her?"

The medicine seller nodded minutely.

"She will reveal the Kotowari to us."

"But what of the mononoke?" she replied.

"Do you not understand? The mononoke is before us," he replied calmly, and Okuni suddenly understood why the woman was so familiar.

"Kureha," she spoke the name. "She is truly Kureha. But...why does she not try to kill us?"

"We will know soon enough. For now, let us follow."

Feeling strangely...reassured, Okuni followed after the medicine seller as he walked purposefully towards the altar. The woman...Kureha, smiled again, pointing towards the kami's statue on the altar. As soon as they reached it, it slid aside to reveal a flight of stairs.

"Down there?" Okuni asked of the priestess, getting a single deliberate nod in response. "W-well, I suppose we don't have any choice..."

The spirit...apparition...whatever she was...led the way. It was strange, this sudden change in the jorogumo. She did not seem hostile at all, but rather, entreating, like she was showing them something that would end the destruction. Okuni still felt afraid, but the medicine seller was anything but. The sword's bell jingled slightly with each step. Down, down, the stairs spiraled for what felt like ages before stopping at a chamber containing nothing but a decorative rug. Again the priestess pointed, this time at the rug itself.

"I don't understand...What-"

Before Okuni's eyes, the rug was no longer beautiful and clean, but ragged and worn, wrapped around a woman's figure. Spiders crawled all over it, under the rug and through the woman's hair. The woman, she realized, was Kureha herself, who feebly lifted her head from the floor and looked fixedly in her direction.

"You...you weren't thrown into the lake at all. They kept you here alone until you died...with only these spiders?" Bile took hold of Okuni's heart.

The priestess nodded fiercely, and a wind picked up from nowhere. The scene before them changed. This time, it showed different men, different shrinekeepers repeating the sins that had occurred before them. Again; and it showed travelers defiling the shrine. Again; it showed Okuni in front of the shrine, sprinkling water from the lake onto the doors, Okuni chastising the monks for their behavior, locking the doors against them, hiding her anger, her feelings of disdain, and the darkness clouding her heart.

"...me?" the girl spoke quietly.

Another nod, another change, and they stood outside of the altar.

"I see," this time, it was the medicine seller who spoke. "You were trapped here for as long as humans continued to repeat the past. You could not escape."

"That's...horrible," Okuni whispered.

"Yet, there is one piece missing. One more vital chapter in your creation. You needed a source, so to speak. You had forgotten your own fury at your treatment. The passage of time had worn it away to a milder feeling of bitterness."

At this, he turned to the shrinekeeper.

"Herein, you found your source. The hidden feelings swept behind screens and lattice doors."

"What? Me? I...had no part in any of this!"

"Your fear, Okuni-san."

The scene shifted once more, a final time to display the missing fragments of the puzzle. Okuni stood behind the doors, her breath heavy and ragged, her hair frazzled.

_'It would be so much better if they were gone. I can't stand what they've done to this place. I'm tired of this. I...hate them all.'_

_Shouldn't they pay...for what they've done?_

The wind howled loudly once more, the entire shrine shaking fiercely. Okuni screamed and crouched down, throwing her hands over her head.

"I had no part in this!" she protested.

"Though it was not the trigger, your fear reminded her of her own hatred, the reason why she was trapped here. Thus, she relived that day again and again."

"Then...I?"

"You too created the mononoke."  
The priestess smiled once more, just as the teeth on the sword had clacked together. The kotowari was known.

"Destroying the jorogumo means destroying the very source which created it. Okuni-san, if you do not accept your role, you will be at risk as well."

The shrinekeeper felt fear grip at her greater than before. How could such a minor thing have helped the spider manifest? She didn't feel she had done anything wrong. Yet, her fear for the monks, her nagging desire for justice to be dealt...they had all been used by the jorogumo, combined with the priestess' own hatred.

Okuni could think of nothing to say to the priestess. What could she say? Yes, she had hated them. She had even wished them dead on one occasion. Her fear, her anger, her relief at the monks' deaths, and the dark feelings she let fester in her heart had been seen by the mononoke. She had merely refused to acknowledge it. She was not completely innocent. She too, had had her part in creating the jorogumo. But now, it was all over. Indeed, there was no way that it was going to continue, even though it would leave her with bile in her heart and a sickened sensation at her own shadowed thoughts. It was her fault too. She felt shame burning her. Okuni hung her head to the tattered floor.

"I am...so sorry."

"The _katachi, makoto_, and _kotowari _are known. The sword shall be released!"

The medicine seller's sleeves spread out in a whirl of color, the sword of exorcism floating above his head. The sword's figure head suddenly seemed to be alive, eyes glittering as the mouth moved.

"Release!" the sword repeated.

A figure clad in golden robes appeared from nowhere as the sword became animated. Golden sigils appeared over his skin, and he opened his eyes, taking up the sword. It was quite a sight; Okuni stood transfixed, wondering yet again just who the medicine seller was. She suspected he was otherworldly, maybe some kind of kami himself. But it was not the time for questions, and any such things purged themselves from her mind as she watched the scene unfold before her.

The sword, previously rather ornamental-looking with all the jewels decorating it, glimmered brightly as it advanced towards the priestess. The mononoke made no move to get away, instead merely smiling gently as the light engulfed her. The flash of light was blinding, forcing Okuni to shut her eyes against it. When she opened them again, she found herself outside of the shrine.

No, that wasn't quite right...she was standing in the same spot, but the shrine was gone. It was as if it had never been there in the first place. The golden figure was gone as well, as was the priestess. The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the beads of dew on the grass spread over the hill.

Had it all been her imagination?

The only indications that she was still where the shrine had been were the lake, clear and bright, and a single shimmering spider web at her feet, strung between two reeds. Nestled in the web was a spider, bright yellow and teal colors catching her eye.

"So it was real..." Okuni mused.

It still felt unearthly, like a hazy dream half-remembered. She had never imagined that any of that would have happened, and she still had questions, but at least...

"What do you intend to do now?"

The familiar voice made her jump, though she avoided screaming a second time.

"Stranger, you're going to end up killing someone from fright if you keep that up." she said to him. "What do I intend to do? Well..."

What, indeed? She had no home to return to, no family, and no money. At that, she had to chuckle a bit. Wouldn't the officials be surprised when it came time to pay her and found no shrine there?

Her own darkness had frightened her. She had played a part in the creation of a mononoke. And yet, this would forever be forgotten to the world, her story never known and her suffering unfelt. Humans would never know their role played in creating mononoke, the jorogumo and so many others. The thought planted a seed in her mind. She smiled a bit and turned to the medicine seller.

"I suppose I will...figure something out eventually."

The medicine seller's mouth curved upward, as if he knew something she did not, and the two parted ways in opposite directions, leaving the glistening spider web woven over the reeds behind.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-_

_The mirror does display every strand woven into the web of yourself._

_The End_

_-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x_-x-

**Ending Notes:**

If you're confused about anything or it's too vague, here are some points to clarify, as well as a few things that I couldn't really find a way to accurately portray;

-Kureha was kept locked in her own shrine by people who wanted the secrets of the lake's "healing water" (four men, just like the monks here) until she died. The only company she had were the spiders, which also kept Okuni company.

-Because Okuni didn't mess with the spiders, or the shrine, or do anything _particularly_ bad, the mononoke didn't want to kill her. Instead, they shared the same hatred for the defilers.

-The mononoke itself was the collective regret and pain of the women trapped and killed there, but Kureha had the "strongest will" of the creature. It was helped along by Okuni's negative feelings.

-After Kureha's demise, she essentially had "cursed" the shrine and any who came to be there (well, the ones who repeated what the shrine-keepers before had done). Any 'evil shrine-keepers' were killed horribly.

-The theme of this story is "facades;" the fronts we all put on in order to hide our innermost thoughts from others. The monks are a simple example, seeming pious and virtuous at first glance simply due to being monks, but being greedy and indulgent in the end. Okuni is a slightly different example. I had wanted to portray the dark side of human nature, showing that there is no such thing as a completely pure person, and so gave Okuni some antisocial tendencies and harmful trains of thought. Unfortunately, due to the story's length, I couldn't find a place to play with it as much as possible.

That's all! Hope you enjoyed the story!


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